The Surface will begin shipping in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, France, Germany and Hong Kong on Friday, October 26th. The Windows RT-powered Surface starts at $499 for a 32GB model, $100 cheaper than an iPad with comparable storage. The Touch Cover, one of the more interesting innovations in Microsoft's tablet venture, isn't included for that price; it's only available as part of a $599 bundle with the same 32GB tablet.

There is also a 64GB model that includes the Touch Cover for $699. Separately, the Touch Cover is $119 and the Type Cover is $129.

M$ steps on itself once again. Pricing offers no one but the hardest corest M$ fans (are there any left?) a reason to buy. It can't compete with either Android or iOS at this price point. Enterprise already hates Windows 8 and loves iOS. Consumers have long felt trapped by Windows until iOS presented them a post PC option. Anti-Apple folks adopted Android. Who's left to buy Surface?

__________________Walled Garden ≠ Prison:"People who use Apple products considered their options, and chose Apple. If they regret their decision, they can dump it at any time."-- Harry McCracken, Technologizer.com

So basically, if I switch to or being with a Microsoft Surface, I will be 100% guaranteed to dance my pants off.

Thats really the only takeaway I got from that commercial.

Only if you are posing as Steve Balmer for Halloween.

__________________Walled Garden ≠ Prison:"People who use Apple products considered their options, and chose Apple. If they regret their decision, they can dump it at any time."-- Harry McCracken, Technologizer.com

The surface looks nice, especially with a nice price. Unfortunately, apple spoiled me with the ipad retina display. Now I can't look at a non-retina display, especially a tablet, the same way now. Every thing else sucks.

M$ steps on itself once again. Pricing offers no one but the hardest corest M$ fans (are there any left?) a reason to buy. It can't compete with either Android or iOS at this price point. Enterprise already hates Windows 8 and loves iOS. Consumers have long felt trapped by Windows until iOS presented them a post PC option. Anti-Apple folks adopted Android. Who's left to buy Surface?

As someone in Windows-centric IT and who makes a lot of house calls for clients, I was excited about the Surface for the ability to have a light, small device running (almost) a full version Windows and Office. At this price point, I'll just wait until Office for iOS hits in the Spring and continue using my iPad for business AND personal use.

Too expensive. I know Microsoft wants to get into the higher end market but if people have to spend that much they'll probably think "I might as well buy an iPad" or something similar. They'd have much better luck with Intel-based tablets and marketing them as a more portable Windows computer.

Hold up one second........120 BUCKS FOR A FRICKEN TOUCH KEYBOARD THAT VIOLATES SO MANY PATENTS........WTF!?!?!??!?!

It doesn't violate Apple's patents. There is a cross-licensning deal for this technology between Apple and Microsoft. So, MS paid the piper. Which is maybe why it's so expensive? Just speculation on my part.

I do wonder if Microsoft will push the pricing model for storage down. Surface 32GB = iPad 16GB. We'll see.

Pricing offers no one but the hardest corest M$ fans (are there any left?) a reason to buy.

My guess is that some enterprise managers and developers with a bunch of C# business and Office related applications to port to a touch UI will feel more confident buying these at roughly price parity. Their actual users might still prefer iPads, but, except for BYOD situations, it's not their money.

M$ steps on itself once again. Pricing offers no one but the hardest corest M$ fans (are there any left?) a reason to buy. It can't compete with either Android or iOS at this price point. Enterprise already hates Windows 8 and loves iOS. Consumers have long felt trapped by Windows until iOS presented them a post PC option. Anti-Apple folks adopted Android. Who's left to buy Surface?

Wrong, MS is rolling out support for Surface in SCCM. Can't manage iOS devices with SCCM.

Our company is already planning to buy some to pilot test. I have to co-workers, one a former iOS guy migrated to Android and another a former BB buy recently migrated to Android, chomping at the bit to buy a Surface.

Of course, we just made a VERY public purchase of a lot of iPads already.

Just saying, don't count MS out and I think a lot of your presumptions are incorrect.

I'm sure Microsoft follows the Apple rumor mill well enough to know that the iPad mini release is very close, so the timing of this announcement was not unfortunate, nor was it a blunder. It was a deliberate effort to avoid being buried, as they might well have been had they'd waited until next week. At this point, Apple hasn't actually announced anything more than a media event, whereas Microsoft actually (and finally) pegged the price and shipping date for the Surface.

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*The season starts too early and finishes too late and there are too many games in between.

MS is always a day (or four years) late and a dollar short when entering markets pioneered by others. The right thing to do was to start on the basic side and pick up those who have basic needs and back up at the price of an iPad and then grow it higher into the market. They's an unknown after all entering a crowded market and trying to go high end. That company has a lot of solid brain power. I just wish they would use it sometime.